In July 1969 a young American GI-barely 21 years old and enticed into the military just a year prior by his dream of flying-finds himself on a plane bound for South Vietnam and the 101st Airborne Division as a CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot.

So begins a year-long journey in a combat zone of the Vietnam War-a journey of fear and exhilaration, pain and joy, sadness and survival. Surprises of both grief and delight pockmark the daily grind and accompanying countdown to the day he can fly back home to the USA (called by soldiers simply "the world") on the wings of a Freedom Bird. But the one-year journey in Vietnam was also the beginning of another journey-a spiritual journey of self-identity-which would take a lifetime to unfold. In his memoir,

Dale Petersen uses descriptive prose and excerpts from letters to give the reader an intensely personal view of that life-shaping experience over 37 years ago. Golf 2 Tango 4 takes readers back in time to what it felt like to be 21, homesick and unsure of what lay ahead...but willing to reach down inside for the courage to find out.